?We need more thought and fewer thunderbolts to bring about change?

I've had the great pleasure of meeting Cardinal Keith O'Brien and found him to be a warm and humane man with a deep generosity of spirit. But in the past week I began to wonder whether I had misread the man, given the coverage of his Edinburgh homily on abortion.

Now, having studied it, I realise that many of the words generated about it owed more to those on the wilder shores of the Church.

However, the cardinal was unequivocal in his denouncing "the unspeakable crime of abortion", and in this he is clearly speaking from his conscience. But the consequences of speaking about politicians following the church line may be damaging and divisive in a way that he cannot possibly have intended.

I myself am a Roman Catholic who happens to be an MP but one who represents a constituency in which Catholics are in the minority. Just as Sikh MPs resist the call by co-religionists to support an independent Kalistan, and Muslim MPs state that they have no mandate to vote for Sharia law in the UK, I have always made it clear that while my every action is informed by my religion, I am not subjugating my role as a political representative of 80,000 to the instructions of those of the same faith as mine. 

I have always voted in accordance with the Church's views on pro-life matters but I am unhappy about the way in which the cardinal's words have been used by those who feel that Catholic MPs should act in a uniform manner.

Over the years I have been telephoned, emailed and stopped in the street by those demanding that Parliament immediately repeal the Abortion Act and forcefully stating that I have no right to receive the Eucharist until I do so. The ban would also apply to my family - despite their own views.

Others have made the equally powerful case that if the equivalent of a classroom of children are aborted every day in Scotland alone then the Church needs to be building a new orphanage every week throughout the UK as there is no evidence whatsoever that homes will be found for those who are so unwanted that their mother would take the terrible and terminal act that rightly horrifies all those who believe in the sanctity of life.

Above all, coverage of the cardinal's words has led to a repeat of that old calumny that a Catholic MP is the servant of Rome and not of the electorate. I doubt that those who have not been in the position of a Catholic MP can begin to understand how deep and visceral is the prejudice that exists and how convinced are so many people of this old, tired lie.

What we must preserve in this country is the currency of politics - compromise. Cardinal O'Brien himself states that support should be given to legislation that is not perfect but that is promulgated by those who, in principle, oppose abortion.

There are real and desperately urgent and important issues to consider - the renewal of nuclear weapons and the issue of poverty at home and abroad, just to mention a few - and we need more thought and fewer thunderbolts if we are to achieve compromises that bring about real change.

Cardinal O'Brien himself has been vocal about some of these issues. He said that no Catholic MP should vote to renew the Trident programme and he was masterful in calling for support for the Gleneagles principles. Many Catholic MPs followed his guidance but there was no talk of denying Holy Communion to those who did not. There may not be equivalence between nuclear war, starvation in Africa and abortion, but the principle is the same and we are entering a very dangerous place indeed if the much-rumoured "Vatican whip" is finally cracked.